– Be sure to follow our recap of NXT season 1 on its tag page and catch up on any episodes you might’ve missed. We are t-minus 4 weeks away from Daniel Bryan “eliminating” Justin Roberts with extreme prejudice. Best of luck in your future endeavors in the future IN THE PAST, Justin!

– Give us a share if you like these retro Best and Worsts and want to see more of them. I kinda have to know if seasons 2 and 3 are worth recapping, because compared to them, season 1 is WrestleMania X-7.

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As for now, please click through for the Best and Worst of WWE NXT season 1, episode 12, originally airing on May 11, 2010.

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So Ryback was on Tough Enough in 2004 and then waited 6 years to be on another WWE gameshow? Even then he was repackaged again before anybody liked him? And it all culminates for the guy to be on a tag team with Joe Hennig? This is fascinating to me.

I think it’s because he’s got the best imaginable body for pro wrestling, but the worst brain. Like, there’s enough of an upside to his physical abilities to perform that they keep hoping his brain comes around, but it just doesn’t.

I actually think Ryback’s finally coming into his own. Maybe if he had toiled on the main roster as part of a tag team BEFORE his giant megapush in 2012, he would have been better in the ring, and they would have actually had faith in the push and allowed him to, you know, WIN A MATCH once in a while. Instead, they liked the look and the catchphrase and didn’t care about the in-ring product until they realized, hey, he’s not very good, so let’s have Henry beat him at Mania, and then we’ll turn him heel because we have no strong heels at the moment to feud with Champ Cena.

To be fair, the WWE completely screwed up booking on Ryback. He was starting to really get over and they put themselves in a no-win situation by booking him into title matches that they knew he shouldn’t win.

ryback all the way up until he competed vs punk in a TLC match on RAW was fine. (I didn’t like the squash matches at first, but I started paying attention when he neared our cm punk and his title reign.) in fact, ryback all the way until turning heel on john cena on the RAW after mania and throughout the next month where he was the smartest character in WWE was great. but since he put cena into the titantron and they just decided to throw the match away although it’s a last man standing match and they should’ve counted cena dead and pulled the trigger on the ryback but instead dumped him to the sharks (through an ampulance roof), it was awful, awful booking. we had a short glimpse of hope when him and heyman were kissing and proposing to each other wonderfully, but it faded to black so fast and we had to wait until he became an internet villian/hero/insider now and I think he’s doing good again.

@JohnnyDrama it may be short sighted of me, but when the WWE puts itself in those situations I’d much rather they just pull the trigger. You pushed him all the way up there, give Ryback the belt, see how it goes. You’ve always got Cena if you need to pull it off him.

Of anyone on NXT season 1, my favorite character was Skip Sheffield. More than anyone Skip represented how the show soured all the rookies on WWE. He started off as a total rube and ended up as an embittered dude who brutalized guys* and wore a friggin’ spike-studded vest. Rigged keg carries and bloody brawls (I can’t find it, but he had one in black and white with Wade Barrett at some point) must have really worn on him.

* I like Ryback’s backpack stunner so here’s some fanwank to justify why it’s effective: normal stunners work by whiplashing necks, but backpack stunners work by driving the throat into the collarbone/shoulderblade. Holding the person tight increases the impact.

As I sit here watching my favorite Elimination Chamber match ever (the one where Sanfuckingtino almost won and THE CROWD WAS LOVING IT) I am also reading this article which makes me very happy. You should continue doing these. I just want you to suffer through the rest of NXT, really.

Also, I know there’s not a ton of demand but I’d love it if this column made it to Season 3 of NXT just because I’ve never seen it but I know Brandon has mentioned several times how it just kinda devolves into this weird, fun-bad, alternate universe thing or something like that.

The small package is probably how Bryan beats HHH right? If he gets him to tap or beats him with the running knee, that probably means Dave is winning the title.
You need to have a surprise small package and HHH looking shocked and flipping out after the match.

No chance in hell Triple H taps to Daniel Bryan, the guy’s not going to swallow his pride that much. I can sort of see the running knee, but you’re probably right about D-Bry winning with a small package.

@Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Come on, man. We all thought there was no way he’d tap to [Name Redacted]. We all thought there was no way he’d tap to John Cena. He will definitely tap to Bryan. However, I suspect we’re getting a SummerSlam 2002 aftermath, where he disables him with a sledgehammer, thus drastically hampering Bryan’s chances of winning the title. (He’ll still win the title, in even MORE dramatic fashion, but Triple H will get the credit for making it more meaningful by almost killing him with the sledge.)

The knee would be a great, cathartic moment, and it’s the move everyone’s hoping to see. A victory by small package is about the most humiliating way Triple H could lose, because it’s out of nowhere, and there’s no impact to justify keeping the mighty Triple H down. …Of course, that also makes it look like a “fluke,” which sucks. We all want Bryan’s win over Triple H to be decisive.

I really don’t see Triple H tapping out. One: because it’s Triple H, and two: how many submission victories has Bryan gotten since he started using the knee? It’s kind of like Punk’s Anaconda Vise now. There’s a *chance* of it working, but it probably won’t.

@Matt Steele – Trips tapping to Cena wasn’t that surprising, as Cena is essentially the mold for prototypical face of the WWE. As far as [redacted], as much as WWE likes to pretend they’re the only wrestling company in the universe, [redacted] was a legit super badass top level guy in a company that was straight up taking the WWF’s lunch money for over a year straight. I wouldn’t put D-Bry on either guy’s level, no offense intended.

I can see H sledgehammer Bryan to death, only for Bryan to surprise with a small package. This will set up the storyline for the main event, where D Bry is barely able to compete due to said sledgehammering, but he manages to ALMOST win anyways. And the story can logically carry on from there.

Or, Triple H will beat Bryan with a small package after Stephanie distracts Bryan with a queef to the face, and then D Bry gets fired the next night on Raw.

Cole being scripted to shit on Bryan is the best thing to ever happen to his career. Cole was the biggest heel in WWE at the time, and not one fan watching is going to take Cole’s side. You couldn’t have asked for an antagonist with more heat. If Bryan had received support from a babyface announcer, I’m not so sure Bryan is in the spot he is in today.

It’s also telling that Vince hired Bryan back so quickly after the tie incident. It appears it was done for mostly PR reasons. If Vince didn’t give a shit, he never would have hired him back, have him feud with Cole, have him beat the Miz, win MITB, etc.

My personal favorite Cole moment was when he ripped off his suit and was wearing a Celtics Kevin Garnett jersey in Miami, AND he interrupted a Rock promo just to show it off. Of course, he ate a Rock Bottom as a result, but being a Boston guy, and a fan of Heel Cole (the Cole Mine area was a brilliant addition to the character), I absolutely loved it.

“The truest clue that Bryan’s elimination was impromptu for spite and not a part of the story is that Cole has nothing to talk about for the remainder of the show. He’s just aimlessly watching guys do armbars, mumbling under his breath about nerds who don’t own televisions and ‘the so-called Internet.'”

Call me crazy but that sounds like pretty solid evidence that it WAS storyline. All Cole can talk about for the rest of the show is Daniel Bryan? How does that prove it was impromptu/shoot if it’s the only thing in the script?

“Firstly, a regular stunner barely makes sense. You grab a guy by his head and sit down, causing him to bend over like a normal human bends over and I guess his chin hits your shoulder, and despite not having any body weight behind it he collapses into unconsciousness and flies backwards in a heap.”

The way I always understood it was that the guy’s throat hits your shoulder and basically crushes his trachea and knocks him out from lack of oxygen or whatever.

By the way, am I the only one who would melt into a puddle if Barrett showed up on Monday night in a suit and Ray-Bans and a fedora and said “I’M AFRAID I’VE GOT SOME BAD BLUES” and then just started in with the worst harmonica playing ever for like 2 solid minutes? I can’t be the only one, can I?

“The world is what we make of it. I choose for my world to be happy, interesting and exciting. I love people, and I love hanging around with people who are different and compelling. I like people who aren’t afraid to be themselves.”